Mutant
by legendarytobes
Summary: AU - 4th story in the Impetus Verse/Kryptonian!Chloe saga. Chloe's upset over Lex and Lana's pending nuptials. Clark's frustrated over his widowed mother getting closer to Lionel, but his biggest problem may be a burgeoning special ability...
1. Chapter 1

**1**

Clark sighed and bounced his ball against the wall of his loft. It was sadly his favorite activity. He'd done it when he realized how paired off everyone was-Oliver and Lois, Lex and Lana, even Chloe in her own way, bitterly jealous of the other girl and that there was a wedding of the century in the works. Hell, even his mom was out at a fundraiser with Lionel, and, no, he couldn't understand how she could just be okay with his attention when his dad had died of a heart attack barely a year before.

Stupid stress from elections.

The ball bounced wildly with his distracted throw, and Clark followed it down the stairs, smiling a little to himself when his mom bent down and picked it back up. "Honey, what are you doing up here all by yourself?"

"Isn't that the operative question? Besides," he said gesturing with his chin toward where one of the barn cats was sleeping on the sofa. "I'm not alone, exactly."

"What about Oliver or Lois?"

"Date."

"Chloe?"

"She said she had patrolling to do," he replied, wondering if she was actually doing it or it was her version of "washing her hair" and a complete blow off.

His mother frowned and reached out to adjust his tilted glasses. "Well, then, I'm glad the fundraiser didn't last very long. Lionel invited me for a drink afterwards, but I wanted to get home to you."

Clark breathed a sigh of relief at his mother's discretion. "Thanks, I know most guys don't hang out with their moms but it's nice to be with someone who speaks English. Felix isn't especially talkative."

She nodded and pulled her shawl tighter around her. It was March after all, and still very cold in the barn. Clark had to where his thickest sweater and gloves to enjoy his loft. "Good then, how about some hot chocolate?"

"You spoil me," he replied. Then, and he couldn't understand why it had come up, just that it had been weighing on his mind lately, maybe since he'd come back from saving Chloe in Metropolis, since he'd paid no price for Jor-El's gift of temporary powers. "Mom?"

"Yes, baby?"

"I...please don't take this wrong, but what do you remember about my birth mom? I mean, did the birth certificate give a name? I...did the agency have any details?"

His mom stilled and paused for a moment too long. "Nothing. There was a name, 'Margot Delaney,' but there are also privacy laws and you're not yet eighteen. We weren't told anything about her, just the name. What brought that on?"

He looked away and wrung his hands, knowing it was a topic that not only made his mom uncomfortable but also maudlin. "Just thinking about it. I don't remember foster care all that well but I know I must have had at least three sets of parents try me out before you guys kept me permanently. I just...why didn't anyone want me?" His voice broke on that last part and he looked away, embarrassed.

His mother reached up and hugged him, ruffling his shaggy hair. "We wanted you, your father and I. I still do. You're exactly what I wished for."

Still grasping to her, his voice muffled from leaning on her shoulder, he asked, "Mom, was there ever anything weird about me? I know I'm from Lowell County, that it's on my adoption records. Do you think I was in the shower like a bunch of other kids?"

His mom stiffened but kept stroking his hair. "No baby. Not at all."


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

_A/N - In __**Summons **__, Chloe asked Lex to help her destroy her ship and told him everything she knew about her origins and her powers. In return he helped her on the search for the stones, and also knows about the Fortress. _

Chloe sighed and laid back on the sofa. If she were in a better mood, she'd be making a joke about Freud or something similar. "I just...how am I supposed to take this? I liked Lana, once, before that whole Isobel thing and her obsession with the Black Ship. She was the best cartoonist _The Torch _ever had; I get that. She was so good to Pete too, but-"

Dr. Crosby sighed and poured herself more coffee. "Kala, you know my feelings on Lex and about how much he knows about you. The only people who might know more are Dr. Swann and I, as well as Mrs. Kent, your dad and Clark."

"You trust Clark," she countered, keeping her heat vision to a minimum.

Dr. Crosby rolled her eyes. "Kala, keep your temper down. I understand that Lex hasn't hurt you yet, but he's not trustworthy. He's his father's son."

"Just because he was a club kid once and hurt Patricia, doesn't mean he's a bad guy. He's helped me a lot. Without his resources, Isobel would have the stones right now and the Fortress and _game over _."

"He and Lana grew closer over studying the black ship."

Chloe sighed and started fingering the necklace around her neck. It was gold with an amethyst in its center, purple naturally. Lex had given it to her after they'd started dating, upon him banishing the Kala Jor-El construct her "father" had forced on her. She still wore it, much to Clark's annoyance but she couldn't help how she felt.

"I couldn't tell him about Zod; I just couldn't. What would he have thought about me knowing that a man like that, and I use the term loosely, came from my world? I know he knew about my ancestors in China. How could he not? But I just...I didn't want him to get the wrong idea about me."

"And Zod tricked you all and took possession of him. Kala, you made your choices and, at the end of the day, you lied to him and hid facts about your world."

"Which is usually Earth," she corrected. "I know he knows I'll bend the rules. It's why we get along so well, after all."

Dr. Crosby narrowed her eyes at her. "I don't approve of some of the measures either of you have taken over the years."

Chloe rubbed her fingers of the thin gold strand. If only Dr. Crosby knew about her and Lex ruining Whitney's life, among others. She wasn't really all that noble. Her red K summer proved that because she kept dosing herself, no matter what. "I know, but I Zod's not me, but I know I could be like that here, if I wanted. Humans are so fragile. I mean, when Fine first tried to trick me, he said a lot of things about humans not being trustworthy and, as much as I love my dad and care about Clark and Lex, I agreed with him deep down. I mean, I get they teamed up to save me from him, with that damn green K on my chest, but sometimes I _do _think that I could do better."

"That's something I expected, though you've never said it before. You have almost infinite power, Kala. It's hard not to be tempted. The difference is that you don't act on it."

"Not yet," she said, forcing away tears. "I miss Lex so much and I really am the one who blew it!"

"He's getting married in a week. You have to let go of it. It'll eat through you if you don't."

"It's so hard. I lost Clark because of my actions with him. We're still friends, but we could be more if I weren't so mixed up. Now he and Lana have something together and I keep feeling it should be me."

"I understand that loss, believe me."

Chloe sat up and blinked at her. They'd never really talked about her relationship with Dr. Swann, the one that had once produced Patricia. "Why did you split up?"

"He was so busy, always at his work. He didn't have time for us the way Patricia and I wanted. Sometimes people have greater callings."

"That sounds a bit like me."

"I'm not saying you can't have a love life or a family and embrace your destiny."

"_ To rule them with strength _."

"To be the heroine I know you are, actually. However, it's hard and it takes time and effort."

Chloe sighed and, despite herself, rubbed her stomach, almost as if she were hungry. "I know you offered to help me. It's stupid anyway. I probably can't have children. Even if I could, I'd never tell anyone else my secret ever and Lex is gone and Clark can't ever trust me again. Maybe I'm destined to be alone."

"I don't believe that. Kala, it's getting late, not as late in Kansas time, of course, but you should get back to your apartment. Your father might get worried."

She laughed. "I'm bomb proof and superstrong but daddy always worries. It's actually really sweet."

"We all worry about you. You're special."

"Some days I wish I weren't."

"Chlo-bear," her dad said and she always grimaced coming home, seeing him leaning to his left, supported by his cane. The explosion at her house might have cost the Kent family another child, but it had also crushed her dad's legs. The fact he could hobble along at all was a miracle.

"Hey daddy," she said, taking her place at the kitchen table. "How you doing?"

"I know you like New York, I do, but it's ten pm and your patented Gabe Sullivan Spaghetti got cold."

"It's Ragu!"

"It tastes good," he defended setting her food in front of her. She grinned up at him and then heated her food to steaming with heat vision. Sometimes she actually did like her powers. "Show off."

"Naturally," she chirped sweetly. "How was work today?"

Her father sighed. "Pretty good. Crap's crap, sweetie. Sitting at a desk filing TPS reports isn't all that excited either."

She nodded. "Still, at least there's a job to be had. Lex-"

"I know, Chlo-bear. Speaking of the devil."

"Daddy!"

"He defiled my little girl."

"I was eighteen before that," she countered, rolling her eyes at her dad's protective streak. She assumed if Clark had...well, she assumed it was general annoyance at anyone and his daughter. Her dad was protective like that.

It was nice.

Most of the time.

"Yes, jobs are nice, but speaking of Lex, well, sweetie, an invitation came today from Lana. She brought it by the apartment herself. I think that's pretty low."

Chloe sighed and pushed her plate away, no longer hungry. "I can't go. She's just twisting the knife. Ever since she almost died with Nam-Ek and Aethyr, she's been changed. So bitter. It was bad enough when she agreed with Van McNulty over basically genocide. This just pushed her over."

"Don't go, Chlo-bear. It'll just tear your heart out. It'll feel a hundred times worse than with Helen and being part of the bridal party."

"Because Lana's my age?"

"Because Lana's been even snottier about it. I...we can go out of town. We can go to Gotham. Thomas isn't around anymore but once a Sigma Chi big brother, always. Alfred would make a place and we'd do shopping. I'd do all that girly stuff you sometimes like."

She giggled, thinking of her dad with his arms full of shirts at The Gap. "I can't daddy. I won't go to the wedding; it'd tear me up. I won't leave town though. It'll give Lana too much satisfaction."

"You have to get past Lex some time," he said, pointedly looking at her necklace. "He's not coming back."

She shook her head and pushed away from the table, going to her modest futon. His medical bills had been so high, even with a steady job, it would take so long to pay them off, even now. That didn't take into account physical therapy and everything else. "I miss him."

Her father was there then, rubbing wide circles on her back. "I know. There's always Clark. He's such a nice young man."

"I broke him too, daddy. I mess everything up," she was tearing up a little, looking too long at his cane and the brace on his left leg.

He kissed her forehead and squeezed her tight. "You make it all better, at least for me. Get some rest, Chlo-bear. Nothing sleep can't cure."

She wished he was right.

She was sitting at her desk at the Planet, when Clark touched her shoulder. She frowned, not understanding why he didn't just sit down across from her at his usual place. "Clark, what's up?"

"Can we talk?"

She nodded and walked with him to the copy room, they're default for talking about aliens or other things that reporters shouldn't over hear. "Yeah, do we have an apocalypse or a meteor mutant?"

He sighed and adjusted his glasses. "Maybe the latter. I don't know."

She reached out and patted his arm. "Are you...was I right about why Jor-El couldn't get a price from you?"

"No, it's not like I can suddenly fly or something like that. I just have been thinking about it a lot-about my birth mom and all the foster families who didn't want me. I even asked mom about it last night and she clammed up like crazy. I know by now when she's lying. She was cagey like this when dad magically got funding from Lionel to maintain his campaign. She knows something about me, and she doesn't want to say."

"So what do you need. Clark, you got really angry with me when I even suggested it. Are you sure you want to explore this? To get it confirmed?"

He nodded. "I've thought about it for over three years. I can't get it out of my head after all that wondering. I _need _answers."

"Alright, so we Woodward and Bernstein this. We can start with the DP's database since you were born in Lowell County as far as we know. Do you have your birth mother's name?"

"Um, yeah, mom knew that much from the birth certificate. 'Margot Delaney' she said. You think you can work your magic on things. I...if there's something really unusual, I don't think I can just read it off a computer screen."

"Me breaking it to you when you're almost as good a hacker as I am, you mean?"

"Ah...yeah," he shrugged and checked his watch. "I gotta go. Jimmy and I have an article on rat infestations at a five star restaurant in Uptown to cover. Editor here wants pictures. You can do this for me?"

She smiled and squeezed his hand. "Fastest hacker in the west."

He offered her a pained grin and walked back out the door. Following after a few minutes later, Chloe started her usual search of DP databases and then hacked into a few of her favorite medical ones. The second database gave out info that made her gasp. Clark's mom was still in Lowell County, not even twenty miles from Smallville. She was in Granville, at a hospital called Fairview.

And she was catatonic.

Chloe closed the file and took in a deep breath. Some days, being her really sucked.


	3. Chapter 3

3

A/N - I am not a Lois fan after s8-s10, truly I'm not. If it helps you to deal with her then imagine Amy Adams being adorable or remember that this is a supportive version of Lois who is basically into defending her cousin and her cousin's secret and a big sister figure to both her and to Clark. Still, try my new trick of imaging Amy Adams instead! (Idea from worias

"Can I have the bumpers back?"

Lois shook her head at Clark. "No, Smallville, the whole point of this is to get better at the sport."

"It's not a sport if you can drink beer between frames and sit on your ass, just so you know," Clark replied, adjusting his glasses and ignoring everyone snickering at his granny bowling style, rolling the ball between his legs instead of winding up and letting it go one-handed. It was the only way he could get it even straight enough to hit a few pins.

She sighed. "Clark, I can show you again how to do it the real way."

"I like this way fine. Besides, I'm just not a good athlete. It's not gonna happen," he said, sitting down next to her.

She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Did it ever...was it ever hard to feel like you had to keep up with Chloe?"

Lois had learned of Chloe's secret during their senior year of high school. She'd moved to Smallville to repeat her senior year and, even after Lex made a deal to get her into Met U as a favor to Chloe, Lois still visited Smallville often. She'd been in town to watch Chloe give her Valedictory address at graduation. She'd been the one to find Chloe passed out while trying to grab an artifact from The Talon, where Lana was staying, and he assumed that was a magic booby trap of Isobel's. Lois had saved her, followed her to the caves and found out everything by being beamed to the Fortress of Solitude. She'd been pretty cool about her cousin and surrogate little sister being an alien superhero. She was, with her karate skills and military experience, like the Bonnie to Chloe's Clyde. They made a good team, all three of them, with Clark covering as a lot of the brains behind the operation with his ability to see and process all the angles.

They were good at keeping Smallville safe from the dangerous meteor mutants and other aliens, like the people from the black ship or Milton Fine.

Still, it didn't make Lois less like that annoying older sister he'd never quite wanted.

Blinking, Clark looked back at her. "I don't know. Chloe's my friend." And often he wished they could be something more again.

"I know. I feel like, sometimes, I wish I could really help her. I can do some things, but I'll never be like her. I can do some kicks here or there, but she's amazing."

"So you feel inferior?"

"A little. I just feel sometimes like I'm not really helping and maybe slowing her down on patrol."

"And someone has to save her from the green K or a mutant with an advantage. I do believe that she wouldn't have gotten as far as she had without us. It's not enough to have superstrength and speed. You need people to support you and to pitch ideas off of. She's bright and powerful, but being alone sucks."

Lois stood up and grabbed her ball, which as Clark noted was a lot heavier than his own. She started to wind up when an Asian guy in the official golf shirted uniform of the bowling alley came up behind her, offering to teach her to bowl. She rolled her eyes and Clark could overhear her telling him she was more than capable.

The guy, and Clark thought he'd introduced himself maybe as Daniel, shrugged and took Lois's first frame. It was then that Clark realized something wasn't right about him. The ball he'd rolled was clearly head for the gutter, it's angle and velocity a guarantee he'd get no points. Then the ball, the best way to put it, was jumped from being on the edge of the gutter and changed angles, rolling directly into the pins for a strike.

Lois rolled her eyes, told him to take a hike back to his counter and continued to get a turkey. Coming back to sit next to him, she touched his shoulder, getting his attention. "Hey, Earth to Clark. Are you okay?"

"I...what he did is not possible."

"He got lucky."

"No, you don't understand. I'm really good at physics and there's no way the angle could have changed that way. I think he's a telekinetic like Jessica Gaines."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, we need to keep an eye on him, just in case. He doesn't seem dangerous but you just never know." He hated to say things like that, in case he joined or was part of the meteor infected's ranks. Still, telling Chloe so she could keep a Wall of Weird file on him seemed like a great idea.

"Alright," Lois said, frowning when a blind kid, and Clark recognized him vaguely from high school as a guy named Tobias Rice, was led in by a man who couldn't look more like a body guard in his three piece suit and sunglasses at nine o'clock at night than he already did. "Like that's not unusual."

"Agreed," Clark said, stepping up to take his turn, acting as nonchalantly as possible while watching the events unfold before him. Tobias looked around and pointed to Daniel Kim before he and his associate-that really was the best term-left from the bowling alley. Frowning, Clark watched as, several minutes later, Daniel left to go take a smoke outside, his pack of Camels clutched in his hand. Clark took his turn quickly, went to Lois and snuck outside with her. He just had the worst feeling.

They got outside just fast enough to see Daniel being shoved into a van, struggling against his captors. To Clark's utter shock, the van surged forward, trying to run him and Lois over. As he tried to run as fast as he could, wheezing all the way, Lois took him by the shoulder, dragging him into a culvert. When the van was gone, Clark couldn't stop shaking. A firm hand was on his knee.

"Clark, it's okay, we're alive."

"Thanks for the save."

She shrugged. "Meh you can owe me later. In our life, we take turns bailing each other out, but now we know something really weird's going on, even for Smallville."

"Yeah, someone's taking meteor mutants and it looks like not by choice."

"How are they doing it?"

"I don't know but I bet Tobias Rice does."


	4. Chapter 4

**4**

A/N - I've played with the order a little bit for Lana's pregnancy timeline. I'm aware it's been creatively futzed with. .

She hadn't been in his office in a long time, not since she'd come looking for Lex himself. It had been during the less-than-kosher entrance of the Green Arrow and his plan to hold Lex for invasive medical testing, to assess him for abilities after the Zod incident. It was how she'd come to the main office and found Lana upset and on the piano, been told in no uncertain terms that the other girl was already pregnant.

The fact that Lex moved relatively fast from one fall to the next hurt more than Chloe could say.

Now it was bustling with activity. Although, when Chloe walked into it, human speed, she was surprised that it wasn't a caterer or florist with whom Lex was conferring. It was his private physician and several of his team. Chloe frowned but waited patiently at the corner of the room. Tempted to open up her hearing, she managed to quell the urge and wait for his attention, some petty part of her glad she was on the "always admit" list. She knew that it wasn't out of love or affection, but necessity, for when emergencies and apocalypses were imminent.

Despite their fractured relationship, Lex wouldn't spite the world to get back at her.

She supposed it was fortunate or tortuous that there were so many life-or-death crises in her hometown. Even broken up for more than a year, they saw each other almost weekly.

Eventually, the team left and Chloe took a seat slowly on a sofa, waiting for Lex to speak. He wasn't being a gentleman and waiting for her; she could tell that was not the reason for his pause. Instead, he was holding a full glass of scotch and staring at the roaring fire's flames, as if it could explain the mysteries of the universe.

Chloe noticed the unopened manilla folder on his desk as well, one the head doctor had left him.

She sighed. "I'll trade you mine if you trade me yours, Lex."

He eyed her then, focusing on where she played with the strands of her gold necklace. "We're past that Kala."

Once the way her birth name had rolled off his tongue had excited her, now it only left her despondent. "Chloe, you know," she said tiredly. "Lex something's really wrong here. I know it is. I know when you can't even offer some sardonicism that you're upset. What's really going on?"

He sighed but walked over to his desk. Pressing a button for his secretary, he said, "We're in a meeting. No one is to disturb me, not even Ms. Lang, is that understood?"

"Sir but-"

"Especially not Lana," he finished, waiting for his secretary to agree and clicking off the intercom. He nodded toward her and she blurred to the doors, locking them in place herself before resuming her space on the sofa. "I appreciate that."

"Lex, what's wrong? I know it's not the apocalypse or you'd have beeped me. But you're scaring me. Not to sound catty but there's not anything you'd keep from Lana over me, not anymore."

"I'd keep this," he said, tossing her a file.

She frowned, looking over fetal testing and DNA readouts that she wished Clark were here for. She wasn't stupid but science was his area, not hers. She did notice the most recent round of testing was heavily marked up with more red circles almost than text. She didn't take that as a good sign.

"Is she miscarrying?"

Lex stiffened. "I don't know what she's doing. My top physicians are aware of my research on myself and on the meteor mutants who agree to be monitored."

"I didn't realize her obstetrician-"

"She has a geneticist and an obstetrician both versed in high risk cases."

"Does she know this?"

Lex sighed. "I didn't tell her Dr. Clingman's specialty, no. She doesn't...she knows no more about my infection than anyone else does after Van McNulty. She assumed he had it wrong."

"What?"

"I didn't tell her, Chloe. After the two years you kept your origins from me, you're hardly one to talk about disclosure."

"I didn't say that," she replied quietly. "I...believe me, I'm petty and confused and wish it weren't so, but Lana is the mother of your child. You should have told her when she told you about the baby."

"I didn't. I'm monitoring the situation."

"Is Lana in danger? This is a lot of red and exclamation points on the readouts."

"The results are inconclusive. So far, the fetus is faring well, if not a little smaller than it should be at twenty weeks."

"I knew Lana looked thin," I admitted. "I just assumed she wasn't letting herself gain weight."

"She's on the best diet possible. Dr. Clingman says that the baby's immune system works as mine does but more accelerated."

Chloe nodded, "Like Evan had his mom's abilities times about a hundred."

"Yes, an intense immune system that is capable of fighting off foreign tissue."

"Uh, I wish I were Clark or had paid more attention in biology, but isn't a womb all foreign to the baby. I mean it's only half-Lana at best."

"This is why the doctors are worried. If it's immune system stays as it is, the baby will grow more slowly, probably be five to six weeks premature, but it'll live."

"And be a mutant like you?"

"Inevitably it already is."

"But if its growth accelerates at all?"

"She'll miscarry and the baby would die."

"Would Lana?"

"Neither one are going to. It's why I have money. I can take care of them."

"Lex, you have to tell her. The baby's already inherited your ability. It's already affecting her pregnancy and could get worse. She needs to know."

"That a 'freak's' inside of her. Lana's hardly made a secret of her position since Van and it's only gotten worse since the Kryptonians came."

Chloe sighed and looked at her hands. "I can't control Zod and Fine; we talked about this."

"I know that. You could have warned me first, instead of putting us at cross-purposes but that's neither here nor there. I can't tell her, Chloe. She'd leave me."

"She might not," she replied, but she couldn't force herself to be cheerful. Lana was a bigot, whether it involved aliens or meteor mutants and everyone in their circle knew it.

"She would. I can save them both, Chloe. They have the best care. It'll be fine."

"Which is why you're on your second decanter already. Lex, if the pregnancy goes as well as it can, eventually the baby will grow up and your child-"

"Daughter. We just found out, she's a girl. Lana wants to call her Elizabeth."

Chloe swallowed hard; that burned even worse. " Elizabeth , then. Lex, she'll have that ability, even more obviously than you do. You can't hide this forever."

"I don't ask you for advice anymore Chloe if it's not Kryptonian-related. This is a business arrangement."

She stiffened and glared at him. "Could it really ever be that?"

"Your choice. You lied to me. You lay in my bed and lied to my face every day for months, Chloe."

"What was I supposed to say? Oh yeah, here's Hitler. We're the same species. Still wanna sleep with me?"

"I know what the Fortress is capable of, and you know my father's nothing short of sociopathic. I might have understood. I didn't understand you lying to me and leaving me easy prey for Fine."

"I was wrong, okay? I just...you have to tell Lana. Her health is fragile and she deserves to know why."

"She'd hate me, and I can't have that."

She laughed, a hollow, bitter sound. "Then you understand me more than you used to. I...please keep me informed. The Fortress pretty much hates my guts but it's also the best medical care in the galaxy. If anything happens, please ask."

"Not Jor-El, Chloe. It's unstable."

"But just...at least don't suffer through this alone, okay? Any time, day or night, no matter how bad the test results are, I'm here. You can call me, literally just standing on your balcony too. I'd come. I'd always come."

Lex didn't say anything for a long time. Instead, he crossed to sit next to her on the sofa and patted the top of her hand. "Thank you. I'll think about it. It's very hard to hold it all in."

"I know we're in a shit place, I do, but you don't have to keep a brave face for me on this, alright?"

"I promise, Chloe," and he was looking at her then and she'd give anything if she could kiss him again, if it was last fall but it never would be again.

She moved her hand back and stared resolutely at the hearth. "I need a huge favor."

"I assumed that was coming. Is it a mutant, a Zoner or has Fine returned?"

"None of these things. It's Clark."

"We are still friends, of a sort," Lex conceded. "I invited him and Martha to the wedding, even if he's not in the party. I'm sorry that...I wanted him to feel welcome even if this whole thing hurts us."

"Us?"

"I'd be lying if I said I'd never considered you the wife or the mother of my child."

She snorted. "I can't even have children. Didn't you know that?"

"The Kawatchee..."

"May just be wive's tales," she said, dismissively. "I'd have liked that once too, Lex. I know you're not trying to dig anything in, just Lana."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Clark should be there, but this is about him in a different way. I...he asked me to look into his adoption."

"Is there a reason?"

"He thinks he might be meteor infected too."

"Then I'm going to get him the secret decoder ring?" Lex joked, but it fell flat.

"We're not sure, we just know that when Jor-El gave him powers to get me home that it was supposed to debilitate him."

"Knowing Jor-El, that means he intended the 'gift' to maim Clark at best."

She nodded. "It never has, not once. It's eaten at him so he asked me to poke around about him-why he had so many foster homes, why his mom gets cagey about his adoption, what I could find about his bio-mom."

"And?"

"His mom, 'Margot Delaney,' is at Fairview."

Lex sighed. "That's a sanitarium, nicer than Belle Reve, but still."

"It's a mental hospital. She's been catatonic and a patient there since 1987, must have entered when Clark was still an infant."

"Which would be why he entered the system at all."

"Exactly. I...he can't even know. He had me search the records cause he wanted someone else to do it, to level the blow for him. I was supposed to sugarcoat it for him."

"But he's smart and he will find these things out on his own."

"I know, and that's why I came to you to bury them. What good will it do him to find out his mom's sick. It's not even related to him being infected or not. It isn't related to that at all. It'll just hurt him."

"I can't do that, Chloe."

"I can tell Lana, you know."

"So blackmail me? You hide things Lana can't handle from her and I'll do the same for Clark?"

"Isn't it better for both of them in the long run?" she asked.

"He'll find out. I can bury Fairview records but he's smart. I...let me just see why Ms. Delaney's there. Let me requisition the history for you first. We can get a diagnosis more than the vague catatonia."

She nodded and curled up into a ball on his sofa. "What if he is sick? What if he ends up like his mom or worse? What do we tell him then?"

Lex swallowed and squeezed her shoulders; she relaxed into the embrace, wishing it were more than it was. "I ask myself that with Lana and Elizabeth every day."


	5. Chapter 5

**5**

_A/N - again not a huge EDLois fan. If you prefer to see Amy Adams in her place, then please feel free. _

"This is screwed up," Lois said, heading with Clark to her cousin's apartment. "I can't even...I get it. Some of the meteor freaks have amazing powers."

Clark winced. He hoped that term didn't apply to him but he didn't know if that were true any longer. "Yes."

"I...I can definitely see someone like The General wanting them. Mutant powers definitely mean weapons potential. It could be a private contractor. What about Lionel or Lex?"

Clark sighed and adjusted his glasses. "Lex doesn't fit. I know no one's really talked about it but he's most likely infected himself, especially after Van McNulty pointed out the pattern. I know he's run labs to research the people with the Black Ship and that A.C. didn't like him because of his record on weapons testing, but it's not his bent. I mean, especially after The Green Arrow experimented on him, he'd not do that to someone else."

Lois nodded and used her cousin's spare key to let her into The Talon's first floor. It was empty and dark in the cafe, but they'd sit and wait for Chloe to come in. They'd already left her a cell message while she was patrolling.

"Lionel? This is like Level Three on steroids."

Clark rolled his eyes. "Mom says he's 'reformed' and he technically is Chloe's oracle. I'm not even close to thinking he's got a halo now or that being Jor-El controlled keeps him from doing stuff to the meteor infected. Still, abducting people outside of a public building? It's sloppy. Lionel's a lot smarter and refined than that."

Lois nodded and drummed her fingers on the table. "Now that I believe. Lionel knows how to trick everyone. But if it's not the resident sources of evil in town-"

"Lex isn't evil. He just was doing things wrong to stop Fine and Zod. He got played."

"I'm with Uncle Gabe! He and my baby cousin."

Clark ignored the stab of jealousy that flared up thinking of Chloe and Lex. It was old news and the three of them made a good team most of the time trying to save Smallville and the world in general. "You can't make Lex Satan because he and your cousin, who was over eighteen by the way, had a consensual relationship."

Lois snorted. "If I had my way, Chloe would be a nun."

"Still, Lex wouldn't do that and if he wanted to understand meteor mutations, he's the type with his intelligence to just investigate his own limits. So we're back to square one. If it's not a Luthor, must be a scientist, probably an independent operator from Metropolis."

Lois frowned and stopped tapping on the table. "What if it is a Luthor?"

"I'm confused."

"Not Lex or Lionel, but what if the woman about to had a third 'L' to her monogram is using her husband's money for something new and invasive?"

"Lana?" He gasped.

They'd been friends through high school. Yes, she'd become a very different woman both after her possession by Isobel, and, worse, by the fear and torture she'd received from both Zod and his people. She still had the damage to her hand from where Zod had stabbed through it last May to prove it. Still, she was _Lana _. She'd been a Torch comrade, the girl next door, and Pete's girlfriend. She had never been in on Chloe's secret but she'd been their friend. How on Earth could she be doing this? She wasn't Lionel.

"Well she'd have the means and she has the reason to hate people who are different. She never made a secret about it."

"But this is more than being paranoid or talking bad about them. This is kidnapping at the very least. I...we know her; she wouldn't!"

Lois frowned. "People change, Clark. I've seen soldiers I knew as a kid come back from war just cold and distant. Lana was tortured by a general, the meanest SOB from Chloe's homeworld. Don't you think that could push her over the deep end both about aliens and people with abilities?"

"I don't know but I don't want to think anyone I've known that long is doing this."

"Doing what?" Chloe asked, apparating in front of them and pulling up a chair near her cousin. "So bowling turned into DefCon 1?"

"Welcome to another Saturday night in Smallvile," Lois chirped. "Chlo, we think someone's abducting the meteor infected."

"What?" she asked, her jaw going slack.

Clark nodded and related the story to her about Daniel, Tobias Rice and the van. "I mean, we can't prove that the bowling attendant had powers, but I swear the way he saved the ball from the gutter wasn't normal. It was so obviously telekinesis. Physics didn't match."

Chloe nodded. "I trust your judgment but what do we do? I have my records, but there are dozens of people I've profiled who are just living normal lives, hiding their powers. We can't possibly track all of them. I can't keep an eye on everyone, no matter how many powers I have. They could pick anybody next."

"Well," Clark offered. "We could go to the source."

"Huh?" Lois asked.

"We can just go to Tobias. Whatever happened, _he _was there. I wonder if he can just sense other mutants."

"I've heard of more unusual powers," Chloe added.

"Not a hell of a useful one," Lois replied. "Okay, I'd love to play Nellie Blye with you all but I really can't. I have a midterm on Tuesday and I have a date with Ollie that night to celebrate. Keep me posted though, alright, and don't do anything stupid."

"Like what?"

Lois rolled her eyes and kissed her cousin's cheek as she stood up to leave. "I...let Clark talk to him neutrally. He's not infected but you have powers. I don't think he can sense Kryptonians, but what if he could? You'd be prize specimen Chloe and that'd be horrible."

"I promise, Lo, no worries."

Clark glared at his friend as she knocked on Tobias Rice's door the next morning. "You promised."

"Right, like I'm going to sit this round out. You know I can't do that."

"And if Tobias figures out who you are and is working for who knows? The government or another evil billonaire..."

"Clark, I'm gonna be fine. I'm not on a green K frequency and hey!" She said, pasting on the biggest, fakest smile she had to offer. "Tobias how are you?"

Tobias frowned and leaned on his cane. "Who's there?"

Clark smiled even though it was a pointless gesture. It was habit after all to calm other people they'd talked to in the process of both reporting and well tracking down evil. "It's Clark Kent and Chloe Sullivan. We were in the Crows Class of 2005. Do you remember us?"

Tobias nodded and stepped aside to let them in. "Torch, of course. I liked some of the stuff you all ran, way more interesting than you'd think a school paper could be. Chloe, you editorials are great."

"Uh," she floundered and he laughed.

"I had my mom read it to me at least two to three times a week. Though maybe one day a Braile edition would be great."

"I'll keep that in mind if I ever talk to the next generation," she admitted as they all took a seat.

"So not that it's not nice to have a mini high school reunion at eleven a.m. but what actually brings you here?"

Clark and Chloe looked at each other and he nodded toward her to start.

"Tobias, we know you were at the bowling alley last night and we know that one of the employees was kidnapped. The last person to really interact with him was you and of all things you pointed at him."

"I can't point...well I can, to like sounds, but I can hardly pick someone out of a crowd by sight, can I?"

Clark sighed. "You went blind in the first shower didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"I knew a woman who did too," Chloe added. "Cassandra Carver died a few years ago but she said the meteors gave her an ability. She could see the future. What do you see Tobias that other people can't?"

"I don't know-"

"You've read The Torch," Clark continued. "No one really talks about it in this town, but people here have abilities."

"I know. Everyone knows. Why would I?"

"Not everyone in the shower has them, we get that. After two showers, we'd have the whole town infected. However," Chloe said "It doesn't add up. Tobias, you're somehow detecting the mutants and turning them over to someone, aren't you?"

"I can't talk about this."

"Can't or won't?" Clark said.

"I _can't _. I just can't. You don't get what's going on and how dangerous things are and I can't talk about whatever crazy theories you have, alright?"

"But-" Chloe said.

"No, get out of my home."

"That was useless," Clark huffed scratching Shelby behind the ears in his loft. "Tobias was a dead end."

"No, he was scared. He's being used and he's under the thumb of whoever has him. I assume it's a trade, that Tobias is only free and out of whoever's lab because he's more useful as a bloodhound."

"So where does that even leave us?"

She sighed and raked a hand through her long hair. "I don't know. I really don't. I'll have to start trailing him, seeing who he's associating with and tracking down connections. It looks like stake out time, you know?"

"I know. I just...I hate the feeling this could take a while. Who knows how many people they've already taken or how many they'll take while we get proof?"

"We're on the case though and we'll fix it, promise."

"Hope so," he said, giving Shelby a long back scratch before saying more. "Chlo, I know we ended up slammed, but did you poke around in the records for my birth mom?"

She shook her head and was very stiff when she answered. "Clark, I ran it. She was here until about 1993 based on her tax records and then she moved to North Dakota. She's not even been in Kansas in over a decade. What did you think I'd find?"

"Something...anything. There _has _to be a reason Jor-El's price never happened. He's not a forgiving guy. I mean, look at everything he's done over the years."

"Don't remind me. Lucy _died _as his price for resurrecting me in the fall. If the asshole had just let me stop Zod's people and get Lois out of the Fortress in peace, that wouldn't have happened."

Clark nodded and squeezed her hand. "Lucy wasn't your fault."

"Jor-El wanted a price. She came to visit me, daddy and Lois over Christmas and got into a massive car accident, run off the road for no reason. It's a balance and he took it."

"I-"

"You're right in that I'll never get why you didn't have to pay one, but maybe it's a good thing. You won't have to deal with this anymore, with him. It's been over three years and you're safe."

"Maybe," he said, playing with the hem of his shirt. "I just...why didn't anyone want me until I was well over four years old? Why did it take at least three families before mom and dad kept me?"

"Foster system is made for people to bounce around in, Clark. You got lucky eventually and ended up with awesome parents, you know that."

"But I just can't shake this feeling. I tried to run from it and be angry over it when it was you suggesting it, but I just...there has to be a reason no one wanted me."

"We want you now," she insisted. "Just drop it. It's not worth worrying over. You're here, you have a great family, and you're healthy without a power in sight."

"I still want to meet my bio-mom some day."

She sighed. "Clark, she moved away. She isn't interested. Trust me, tracking down birth parents usually turns out terribly."

"I want to know," he said, sadly, realizing that Chloe wasn't going to help him any further with his dead end.

When Clark walked into The Talon that night, he was so confused to find Chloe frantically pacing while she talked things over with Oliver, Jimmy, and Lois in an empty Talon. He was even more confused when she ran up to him at first sight and hugged him almost tightly enough to bruise him.

"Uh, hi guys. Not that the 'this is your life' isn't fun and I don't like seeing you all, but what's with the hugs? Hell, I thought Lois and Oliver had a date in Metropolis tonight!"

Oliver nodded but was frowning. "Clark, what day is today?"

"Monday. Is this a trick question."

Jimmy shook his head and pointed to a pillar where a flier about _Clark _being a missing person was posted. "You've been missing for two days. It's Wednesday night. The cops are looking and everything. Where have you been?"

"I..." Clark blinked and looked between Chloe and the others. "I really don't know."


End file.
